MIIS Students Advance to Finals of International MBA Competition at World Economic Forum in Davos

The Business for a Better World team: John Foss (MBA ’13), Morgan Rogge (MBA/MAIEP ’14), Mary Vargo (MBA ’14), and James Shirreff (MBA/MAIEP ’14).

January 7, 2014

Four Monterey Institute MBA students have advanced to the final three in the international Business for a Better World competition, sponsored by Corporate Knights and the Schulich School of Business, beating out teams from 20 other universities around the world. At stake is prize pool of $15,000 and an amazing achievement to add to their resumes.

Not surprisingly for a group of Monterey Institute students, the team will be traveling to Davos from four different locations around the world. Mary Vargo (MBA ’14), Morgan Rogge (MBA/MAIEP ’14), John Foss (MBA ’13), and James Shirreff (MBA/MAIEP ’14) will respectively travel from the Virgin Islands, El Salvador, New Hampshire and England to present their proposal on January 24th to a panel of very distinguished judges as part of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland.

The students have worked hard to get to this point, devoting hundreds of hours to research and analysis to come up with solid recommendations for a more sustainable future for Canada’s largest company, Suncor. “We had to delve into the oil industry and many other subjects that we knew little about,” shares Mary Vargo of the very steep learning curve, “but we had enormous support from Dean Yuwei Shi (of the Graduate School of International Policy and Management), and Professor Sandra Dow (of the Fisher International MBA program), as well as other faculty, fellow students and staff members at the Monterey Institute.” John Foss adds: “It was truly amazing and I think we really pushed ourselves.”

As we send our best wishes to the team for their final presentation in Davos, we are already celebrating them as “winners” because of the dedication, hard work, positive spirits and exemplary teamwork that they have displayed throughout the competition.